Bitcoin Network Hashrate Sees Record Decline Amid US Winter Storm Fernan

According to Cloverpool data, Bitcoin suffered its largest recorded hashrate drop after winter storm Fern severely disrupted U.S. mining operations before a partial recovery ensued.

BTC

Summary

Bitcoin’s network hashrate dropped from 1.16 ZH/s to 690 EH/s, the steepest decline in the network’s history, before rebounding to 859.17 EH/s, according to Cloverpool. Analysts linked the drop to U.S. winter storm Fern, which reduced Foundry USA’s hashrate by about 60% and caused power outages for over a million residents, forcing multiple mining facilities offline until conditions improved.

Terms & Concepts
  • Hashrate: The total computational power used to mine and process transactions on a blockchain network such as Bitcoin.
  • Zettahash: A unit of measurement for hashrate equal to one sextillion (10^21) hashes per second.
  • Exahash: A unit of measurement for hashrate equal to one quintillion (10^18) hashes per second.